Throughout the month of October, CollegeBasketballTalk will be rolling out our previews for the 2012-2013 season. Check back at 9 a.m. and just after lunch every day, Monday-Friday, for a new preview item.

To browse through the preview posts we’ve already published, click here. To look at the rest of the Top 25, click here. For a schedule of our previews for the month, click here.

This season, six teams of the possible 10 are eligible for postseason play in the conference as Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Mississippi Valley State, Texas Southern and Grambling State all received bans for low APR scores and NCAA violations. Southern returns from its own postseason ban as one of the favorites in the conference with second-year coach Roman Banks getting back guard Derick Beltran. Prairie view A&M gets Jourdan DeMuynck and 6-11 Jules Montgomery to anchor the Panthers.

Texas Southern had a one of the most unique situations in the college basketball season with Mike Davis entering the program on an interim basis. Then earlier this month, the Tigers announced Davis was signed to a four-year contract, which they should’ve done in the first place…then they get barred from the NCAA Tournament. He gets back Omar Strong, a sharpshooter who averaged 13.3 points last season. Jackson State managed only seven wins last season but Kelsey Howard is a stud who will ease the loss of Jenirro Bush and they get Ole Miss transfer Dundrecus Nelson at the semester break. Alabama State has to replace four starters after making the NCAA Tournament two of the past four seasons, while Alcorn State gets back guard Marquiz Baker, a solid scorer who missed all but five games last season due to injury. Alabama A&M will have the services of Demarquelle Tabb, who averaged 10.6 points and 7.6 boards last year.

After the best season in school history, Mississippi Valley State will be forced to replace it’s coach (Chico Potts for Sean Woods) and their top five scorers. UAPB has the tools in forward Daniel Broughton and wing Mitchell Anderson but has the postseason ban to face. Grambling State isn’t going to be much better than last season’s four-win team, with Quincy Roberts leaving and having to do all this under a new coach in Joseph Price.

Throughout the month of October, CollegeBasketballTalk will be rolling out our previews for the 2012-2013 season. Check back at 9 a.m. and just after lunch every day, Monday-Friday, for a new preview item.

To browse through the preview posts we’ve already published, click here. To look at the rest of the Conference Previews we’ve published, click here. For a schedule of our previews for the month, click here.

North Texas.

Tony Mitchell

Those are the names you really need to know in the Sun Belt this season, because North Texas has enough talent that they could push their way into the top 25 this season and are led by Mitchell, who is all-but a lock to be the league’s Player of the Year and should play his way onto all-american teams and into the lottery. It’s not all that often that a player of Mitchell’s talent ends up on a team like North Texas, but it’s also not all that often that a top 20 recruit like Mitchell isn’t able to find a way to get eligible at a school like Missouri. Mitchell was in the Class of 2010, but he didn’t start his collegiate career until last December. And in that one semester of college ball, Mitchell managed to average 14.7 points, 10.0 boards and 3.0 blocks. He could end up making those numbers look paltry this year.

The scary thing is that he’s far from all that UNT has on their roster. Chris Jones is a talented sophomore point guard who will be joined on the perimeter by Alzee Williams and Jordan Williams. Justin Patton, a transfer from Grambling, is eligible this season, and Oklahoma State transfer Roger Franklin is back for another season as well. With Denver out of the picture (they bounced, off to the new WAC), the Mean Green are a lock to win the west and the overwhelming favorite to win the Sun Belt.

But don’t expect Middle Tennessee State to roll over and play dead. Laron Dendy is gone, but the Blue Raiders return a very good perimeter attack led by Raymond Cintron, Marcos Knight and Bruce Massey. MTSU was arguably the best mid-major in the country for much of last season before back-to-back losses in the regular season finale and the first round of the conference tournament derailed their hopes of making the dance. Hunger and redemption are powerful motivators.

Looking deeper, Arkansas State returns four of the five starters from a team that was picked to win the west prior to last season, Western Kentucky is coming off of a trip to the NCAA tournament and Florida International has added Richard Pitino as their head coach. But the sleeper in the conference could end up being South Alabama, but only if they find enough perimeter threats to take the pressure off of Augustine Rubit inside.

Throughout the month of October, CollegeBasketballTalk will be rolling out our previews for the 2012-2013 season. Check back at 9 a.m. and just after lunch every day, Monday-Friday, for a new preview item.

To browse through the preview posts we’ve already published, click here. To look at the rest of the Conference Previews we’ve published, click here. For a schedule of our previews for the month, click here.

The Southland is going to look a lot different this year than it did last season.

Gone is regular season champ UT-Arlington, who, along with Texas State and UT-San Antonio, jumped to the WAC. Arlington won the conference by three games with a 15-1 record last year. Lamar may as well be gone, as they lose four starters, by rotation players and, essentially, everyone that made them the team to win the conference tournament title.

But the league will have a favorite, as last year’s Summit League champ Oral Roberts joins the conference. ORU loses a number of key players, including Summit Player of the Year Dominique Morrison, but they still have a lot of talent on the roster. Steven Rountree was one of the league’s most active and productive big men last season, and he’ll be joined in the front court by Damen Bell-Holter, who averaged 13.3 points and 7.8 boards in 2010-2011. Warren Niles, who was the team’s second-leading scorer last season, and Utah transfer Shawn Glover will also play major roles, but the key will be whether or not the point guard role gets filled this year.

Stephen F. Austin will probably be ORU’s biggest challenger, as the Lumberjacks not only have a winning nickname, but they always seem to be in the mix for the league’s regular season title. Second-leading scorer Antonio Bostic returns while Taylor Smith is a JuCo transfer that averaged 9.2 points and 6.3 boards in less than 20 minutes last year.

There are three other teams to keep an eye on in the league. Northwestern State brings back Shamir Davis and adds a couple of talented newcomers. Central Arkansas has LaQuentin Miles back, who is the league’s leading returning scorer. But Southeastern Louisiana may be the best bet for making a run to the league title. Brandon Fortenberry, who averaged 17.6 points in just seven games last year, is back, as is Roosevelt Johnson up front. Throw in Providence transfer Dre Evans, and the Lions have sleeper written all over them.

Throughout the month of October, CollegeBasketballTalk will be rolling out our previews for the 2012-2013 season. Check back at 9 a.m. and just after lunch every day, Monday-Friday, for a new preview item.

To browse through the preview posts we’ve already published, click here. To look at the rest of the Top 25, click here. For a schedule of our previews for the month, click here.

With the departure of Oral Roberts to the Southland Conference, the Summit League title is up for grabs, and the spotlight will shift from Tulsa, OK to Brookings, SD, home of Nate Wolters and the South Dakota State Jackrabbits. Remember how popular Damian Lillard and Isaiah Canaan were last year? That’s how big Nate Wolters is going to get this season. I mean, we’re talking huge. Not quite to Jimmer-levels of pandemonium, but it’s gonna be close. The 6-foot-3 senior dynamo is one of the best scorers in the country and he has a savory touch from outside the arch. In short, he is everything you love about college hoops, and everything you need in order to become a superstar. Wolters does have some help (Senior forward Jordan Dykstra), but the Jackrabbits will ultimately go only as far as Wolters can take them.

But if for some reason the Jackrabbits stumble, the Bison of North Dakota State are there to steal the spotlight. The top three scorers from last season return, led by first team All-Conference guard Taylor Braun. The 6-foot-7 junior was the team’s top scorer last year (15.6ppg) and has all the makings of a high-octane scorer that the Summit League is becoming know for. Since we’re talking about high scoring affairs and the Summit League, we cannot forget about Greg Kampe’s Oakland Golden Grizzlies. Last season the Golden Griz ranked ninth in the country in points per game (79.6ppg) and although Reggie Hamilton is gone, Travis Bader returns and is expected to do the majority of the scoring this season.

The Summit League also features a talented Western Illinois program that should be much improved this season, as well as a first-year program in Nebraska-Omaha.

Then there is the curious case of the shortened acronyms. The Summit League has long been known for housing some of the most interesting school and mascot names in the country. But league officials decided during the offseason that Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) will change to Kansas City, and Indiana Purdue-Fort Wayne (IPFW) will change to Fort Wayne. Luckily, officials did not mess with Indiana Univeristy – Purdue Univeristy Indianapolis (IUPUI).

Throughout the month of October (and part of November), CollegeBasketballTalk will be rolling out our previews for the 2012-2013 season. Check back at 9 a.m. and just after lunch every day, Monday-Friday, for a new preview item.

To browse through the preview posts we’ve already published, click here. To look at the rest of the Top 25, click here. For a schedule of our previews for the month, click here.

These are the times that try institutions of higher learning’s souls. As the power conferences jockey for supremacy in football, realignment has opened up power vacuums in basketball conferences across the land. The CAA is losing three contenders to other leagues, so they’re looking to survive the torpedoing by calling in reinforcements from the USS SoCon. Davidson has said “no.” College of Charleston has said “let’s talk about it.” Some even think Elon and/or Appy State may jump ship, tie a square knot, or do some other important nautical thing demanded by this tortured metaphor.

In the meantime, all three programs are currently hanging around the upper echelons of the Southern Conference. Davidson, now several years removed from the Steph Curry ascendancy, looks to prove that team basketball and wily coaching can take them just as far as star power. Forward De’Mon Brooks is the linchpin, and he proved his worth last season in upset non-conference wins over Richmond and Kansas. Ace ballhandler Nik Cochran will keep the offense moving, and 6’10” senior Jake Cohen will do the dirty work in and around the half circle on both ends of the floor. Those three key pieces should keep the Wildcats in the hunt for the regular season crown throughout the season.

Charleston, led by British Olympian Andrew Lawrence, is expected to come in second to Davidson in the SoCon’s South division. The true threat to snatch the auto-bid is more likely to come from UNC-Greensboro, a team whose head coach – former Chapel Hill hardcourt standout Wes Miller – is just a few years older than his fourth-year players. Miller somehow won 13 games after a 2-14 start as an interim placeholder last season, and his ability to keep leading scorer Trevis Simpson in the fold and build a decent nucleus around him has the Spartans on track to win the North division. Elon and Western Carolina are nipping at Greensboro’s heels.

Will the Big Dance invite go to the grizzled veteran, Bob McKillop, or will tyro Wes Miller gain the upper hand? Will a wild-card emerge and deny them both? That’s what makes the SoCon season so much fun.

Throughout the month of October, CollegeBasketballTalk will be rolling out our previews for the 2012-2013 season. Check back at 9 a.m. and just after lunch every day, Monday-Friday, for a new preview item.

To browse through the preview posts we’ve already published,click here. To look at the rest of the Top 25,click here. For a schedule of our previews for the month,click here.

National fame in the Patriot League has almost always accrued to the name on the front of the jersey. Basketball fans are more likely to remember that Bucknell upset Kansas and Arkansas in back-to-back NCAA tournaments than anything an individual player achieved.

That dynamic has changed a bit, following Lehigh’s monster upending of the Duke Blue Devils last season. The Mountain Hawks’ brown paper bag uniform has taken on an additional luster, because it is being worn by legitimate preseason All-American C.J. McCollum. McCollum’s incandescent personal attributes are folded into a tight-knit team coached by rising star Brett Reed. The Mountain Hawks are favored to win the league, despite the additional pressure on McCollum, because senior big men Gabe Knutson and Holden Greiner are chomping at the bit to make aggressive defenders pay.

That’s not to suggest that Lehigh will run away with the league. The plucky Bucknell Bison are back atop the league hierarchy this season, and were the regular-season champs a year ago. The formidable one-two punch of 6’11” banger Mike Muscala and rangy gunner Cameron Ayers gave the Bison an 11-point NIT win at Arizona last season, and should be plenty to strike fear in any opponent Bucknell faces in the upcoming campaign.

The talent surplus at the top hasn’t quite filtered down to the rest of the league, though Army will have a puncher’s chance every night, thanks to the all-around game of 6’7” senior Ella Ellis. Ellis scored in double figures in every game last season, but the Black Knights can’t give him much help.

Gaining the league’s auto-bid will be tougher next year — thanks to one of the wackier realignment developments — when the Boston Terriers (America East) and Loyola Greyhounds (MAAC) finally bring dog mascots to a league that had previously avoided one of the most dominant cliches in college sports.